Producers and distributors have been in a terribly nervous state of mind as more and more cinemas and studios face closure amidst the continuing crisis that affects Lollywood. However just recently it appears that the government has approved some measures that are designed to bring much needed relief to cinema owners, distributors, and the industry in general - Thus an enormous sigh of relief has been breathed all around.

A round up of what's been happening at the Box Office since the end of Moharram back in April - there were no new films released during the Moharram period but things got underway immediately after Ashura when the low budget Janwar finally limped into cinemas. This film had been due for release at least a month ago, but was pulled at the eleventh hour due to problems at the censor's office. Apparently two of Noor's songs had been deemed obscene and the producers of the film had to re-shoot and re-edit the film. The producers of Janwar were also setback considerably as they had to submit some heavy charges in order to get the film cleared by the censor board. In the first three or so days of release the film managed to hold steady, probably due to the fact that it was the sole new release for three weeks or so. The initial few opening days saw the film maintain a 70% capacity which was not bad considering the low budget nature of the film. However the following week the crowds dwindled into a trickle. However considering the cheapness of the product and the low investment factor, the film should not end up becoming a losing prospect. Though hardly a success, the film will at least not cause further bankruptcy and suicide attempts within the industry.

Musalman continues to perform steadily all over the country. In Karachi it was even shifted to the more prestigious English language cinema where it performed steadily, but slowly appears to be approaching the end of its successful run. The film has been running successfully for five months in Karachi which is highly commendable. In Lahore the film has shifted from its initial cinema and shifted to another where it seems set for to complete its silver jubilee at the end of June. The film continues to draw steady crowds and reaches a very respectable 80% on weekends.

Syed Noor's expensive multi-starrer Dacait managed a decent initial and has managed to keep stuttering along. The film has managed to display a solid set of legs and when it seemed that it wouldn't last more than a six week run it has now managed an entire silver jubilee and earned back enough cash to keep its investors from having sleepless nights.

Badmarsh Puttar, which had opened in early April managed a paltry 50% capacity in its opening week in the Karachi circuit and collapsed completely in its second week. The film will do well to go into a further week and is a resounding flop in the sindh circuit. However the film was made eyeing the Punjabi market but even there it drew a blank and has fallen flat on its face. The film should have exited cinemas by the time this article appears online.

Masood Butt's lavish Hakumat also performed way below expectations and again though the figures were not all that bad to begin with, considering the budget and the overall investment, the film is a losing proposition.

Allah Badshah opened brightly but has tapered off and will soon be leaving cinemas. The film was rejected in the Karachi circuit where its release unfortunately coincided with strikes and a cinema closedown. However it has managed to perform solidly in the Punjab circuit and is just about the only Punjabi hit in the first few months of the year.

The industry waits with baited breath as Khoay Ho Tum Kahan, a film carrying tremendous advance reports, is finally ready to hit the cinemas. Publicity, though not quite at the saturation level achieved by Tere Pyar Main and Musalman, has been reaching full tilt and expectations are sky high.

Sajan ka Pyar was released on the 13th of April and it proved to be a cursed Friday the 13th for the film as it turned into a calamitous disaster right from the very opening day in which it achieved a pathetic 40% capacity. The first weeks collections were a dismal 20% and needless to say it won't limp far beyond a couple of weeks at best. The film ranks as one of the biggest flops of recent times.

Khoay ho tum kahan which is a remake of A Perfect Murder finally arrived amidst a wave of publicity at the end of April. Advance reports had been brilliant and now the entire industry held its breath in anticipation. Well, the film has gone down a bomb with fantastic collections all over the nation. In the Karachi region it opened on 11 prints and collected a whopping 98% capacity. The second week saw a measly decline to a rock solid 90%, and so an enormous sigh of relief was breathed all around as Khoay ho tum Kahan was pronounced a resounding success. In Lahore the film registered a phenomenal 100% in its opening week and has only dropped to 90% in the second and third week. After a month of release the film is steady at 70%in the week and hitting 90% on weekends. Khoay ho has done exceptionally well in its first month of release but whether it has the legs to match Tere Pyar Main remains to be seen.

Sangeeta's last release had been the stunningly successful Sultana Daku and much was expected of Mere Mehboob, even though its cast of Saud and Reema wasn't too much to get excited about. The film has opened terribly with only 60% in its first week and has subsequently sunk very quickly indeed. In Lahore the film opened at a couple of prestigious cinemas but the result has been total indifference from the public. The film is a stinging flop for Madame Sangeeta and a setback for Saud's career as a solo hero, and a bad omen for Zeba Bakhtiar's upcoming Babu in which Saud has a major part.

A 20 year old film Egyptian film called Abida, notorious for a couple of obscene dances, was dubbed into urdu and released amidst much publicity but alas the public showed complete disdain and the film has met with outright rejection scoring a paltry 20% in its opening week. Please also note that a pathetic site calling itself hipakistan is lifting all our Lollywood related articles and pretending that they have written them! In fact almost all their "work" is actually simply plagiarized from us and elsewhere. What's really takes the cake is their "privacy warning" at the bottom of their page which asks people to respect their private "work". This article will be lifted by them within a few days no doubt, but remember THIS is where you read this first.

Ishtehari Gujjar heads towards a Golden Jubilee in the Lahore circuit where it is still showing in full shows - the film opened way back in September of last year and has shown tremendous staying power going into its 9th month of release.

Sangeeta had a chance to redeem herself with her family drama Gharana which opened last month. Unfortunately for Madame Sangeeta, it seems the public is tiring of her brand of formula because this film too has been given the thumbs down by the public. The film opened to 70% in the first few days but has crashed since then. It's another dismal flop for Madama Sangeeta who is now in desperate need of some success as the memory of Sultana Daku begins to fade away.

Mukhra Chan Varga is yet another film that has totally been rejected by the masses and has met with dismal collections. It scored only a stinking 25% in its opening few days and its distributors are faced with enormous losses with this turkey.

Some tidbits of news from the studio's, the casting couch, and of course the tabloids:

Shehzad Gul in looking to follow up his immensely successful Tere Pyar Main is about to pull off another casting coup. This time he has apparently gotten Farooq Mannan to sign on the dotted line for his upcoming feature which also stars the petite Zara Shaikh. Mannan who is the country's top most model by many a mile has repeatedly refused Lollywood overtures, but apparently Shehzad Gul is not short of cash these days and made Farooq Mannan an offer he just couldn't resist. Let's see if Mannan can live up to the Tom Cruise tag he has been saddled with. (late breaking news: Mannan doesn't sign!).

Iqbal Kashmiri has signed firebrand Reema for a role in his upcoming Shikari Haseena. He has also managed to sign Shaan in the lead role and has finally ended his exhaustive search for his shikari haseena by signing new discovery by the name of er, Haseena!. The film is to be shot in the jungles of South Africa - no wonder the roles have been so sought after.

Reema has also been singed for the title role of Lollywood's version of Zubeida while arch rival Saima has been added to the Syed Noor directed Prince which stars Shaan (who else?) in the title role.

Veteran Nadeem has been signed by Shaan for a very special role in Hassan Askari's directed Ibraheem.

Syed Noor has thrown out Moammar Rana from Sapney Apney Apney and all the other films he is working on. The two have had a serious falling and have been spitting venom at each other ever since. Noor has claimed that Rana was a nobody until he made him into a star and that he will again be a nobody unless he realizes the errors of his ways. Meanwhile a struggling but defiant Rana has vowed to carry on regardless of his isolation from the Noor camp and insists that he will prove his success without Noor's support. Insiders say the situation arose when Syed Noor told Rana not to sign for Javed Shaikh's film which Rana went ahead and did. Noor saw red and has promised to teach the errant Rana a lesson he will never forget!

Recently when Shaan went into hospital for a minor operation a funny thing happened to Lollywood……all work in the studio's ground to a standstill. This is because Shaan, as you can guage from the list of forthcoming films at the bottom of the page, is featured in virtually every single production in the pipeline. These days Shaan is the very heart and soul of the industry and when he is indisposed, the industry comes to a complete stop.

Neeli is rumoured to be planning her wedding to some airline pilot and is also about to feature in a TV serial. A comeback to the big screen has been ruled out for the moment much to the disappointment of her fans.

Meera is apparently obsessed with computers these days and has declared that she cannot function without a computer by her side at all times. Lollywood insiders are smirking at what they see as the lady's desperate attempt to be taken seriously. Meera has even been declaring that she has her own website www.meera.net.pk - which even the corner paanwallah has managed…Big Deal!
Check out her website though which introduces her as "super star of the millennium" and "Pakistani legendary actress". Talk about blowing your own trumpet!

Meera had been seriously down and out and nearly driven insane by the flopping of Rukhsati has been saved by the success of Khoay ho Tum Kahan. Suddenly from being considered a bad omen and being shunned by nervous producers now she is the current Lollywood "hot cake" with offers falling at her feet by the dozen. Just goes to show how fickle life in Lollywood can be.

Syed Noor has announced Behram Daku naturally with Shaan cast in the title role. Saima, Babar Ali, Sana, Ali Raza, Badar Munir and of course Shafqat Cheema are also in the cast. Shaan has drafted oldie Yusuf Khan for his upcoming self directed venture Moosa which also stars Saima.

The unit of Javed Shaikh's Yeh Dil Aapka Hua has been busy shooting in Spain and Switzerland but returned home on May 18th having had a successful trip. The film is progressing on schedule and is rumoured to be possibly the most expensive Lollywood film ever. Meanwhile Javed Shaikh has sold the rights of the music to Magnasound for a record 10 lac fee.

Fans of superstar Shaan are apparently concerned about the sheer volume of films he is signing - they claim he is suffering from overexposure and not only that, they contend the roles he appears in are all virtually identical and unless he is more selective his popularity will suffer. At the moment however Shaan remains very much a one man industry.

A fight broke out recently at Evernew studio's….when Nargis's secretary started spouting off to Iqbal Kashmiri badmouthing director Yunus Malik. Kashmiri flew into a rage and started thrashing Prince when Yunus himself heard the commotion and when he found out the cause of the fight he too started pounding the helpless Prince whose skin was ultimately saved by the dashing Ghulam Mohiuddin who happened to be passing by and came to Prince's rescue.

Saima and Reema have apparently called off their feud and Syed Noor had sweets distributed in the locality to celebrate the momentous occasion. The great occasion took place following the shooting of Uff yeh Beewian. Fans will remember that the two stars had nearly clawed each other during the shooting of Sanam and also during the shooting of Nikki Jaee Haan. At that stage Masood Butt had managed to get the ladies to become best friends and "sisters" and yet again sweets had been distributed on this grand occasion of truce -yet once again during the Hukumat shoot, the two were at loggerheads once more…somethings never change.

There has been an intriguing ad appearing in the trade papers recently announcing the forthcoming release of a film entitled Doulat. The film is supposedly starring Manisha Koirala and the story behind this is that some desperate Lollywood producers got hold of Salma Agha and begged her to use her Bollywood contacts to secure a heroine from across the border for their Lollywood film. This they felt would be a stunning casting coup and therefore turn into a box office bonanza. Apparently Manisha demanded a staggering 60 lacs as her fee and an additional 40 lacs for her living expenses which rather shocked our producers used to forking out a measly fiver for Saima and less for Reema. The story goes that they came back empty handed, yet the ads have been appearing regularly regardless. It appears though that this is just a publicity gimmick and a way to deceive third party investors into putting their money behind the film. The film incidentally stars Sunny Khan who is apparently the local version of Sunny Deol. Manisha meanwhile has recently given a statement categorically denying that she has ever worked in a Lollywood film!

Fantastic news is that Madame Sangeeta has been persuaded to return infront of the camera as well as behind it for Abdullah. She is due to play Shaan's mother in a film she is also set to direct. Though she may have put on a touch of weight here and there, all it has done is accentuate her already sublime curves. Whatever the age, the Oomph will never subside!

A weird incident occurred during the shooting of a dance number on Noor and Natasha on the set of Parvez Rana's Makha Jat. Hundreds of fans had gathered to watch the outdoor shooting when all of a sudden a huge swarm of irate bees engulfed the entire set. Noor and Natasha were badly stung as was the cameraman and dance master. Rana managed to escape without a sting, but clearly the bees didn't think much of his dance number nor of his starlets. Watch out for Hipakistan, a pathetic website that specializes in plagiarism and indeed no doubt you will see this very article on their site, where they will no doubt claim it to be their own work…….What colossal and pathetic losers.

Sangeeta has had to chuck out Zeeshan Sikander from her film Abdullah as he had recently jacked up his price to 1 lac which obviously is beyond what the Madame considers he is worth.

Shama magazine reports that Madame Sangeeta's own Gharana is in a state of collapse. Apparently her marriage has undergone irreparable damage. She has developed major differences with husband Naveed Akber Butt and they have agreed to part ways without taking public pot shots at each other. They may even agree to continue to live under the same roof, but respecting each others space. How civilized of Madame Sangeeta who apparently never ever received a penny from her husband throughout their marriage - in fact quite the opposite, Madame Sangeeta had to provide for the entire family through her own earnings as director.

In another report it is claimed that Sangeeta was married to Humayun Qureshi and not Naveed Akber Butt. The report further states that Qureshi has left Sangeeta questioning her femininity! Shock! Horror! Could those rumours about Madame Sangeeta being dyke No.1 be well founded after all?

Rumour has it that Zara Shaikh is to pack her bags from Lollywood just as soon as she has arrived. Apparently she is due to get married and shift to Sweden by the end of the year where she is hoping to live happily ever after.Meanwhile Javed Shaikh has been the first to dump her from his film due to her exorbitant demand of Rs. 10 lacs per film with Sameena Pirzada following suit, dropping Ms. Shaikh from her upcoming Shararat.

Saima has quashed all rumours of her sister Rubina's entry into films by categorically stating that she had got her sister married off and set her up with a business.

Finally Shama mag claims that Meera has recently undergone silicone therapy to procure herself a bust to challenge that of the mighty Saima. Fat chance!

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